Network devices, such as routers, perform various operations to route packets to their destination. A centerpiece in network device design is optimizing performance. In this regard, the development of hardware and/or software embodiments of a network device can be critical with respect to various performance metrics associated the network device. For example, instruction set design and the number of instructions to perform a particular operation can impact the performance of the network device. Additionally, shared and dedicated access to various resources (e.g., memory, processing, etc.) can impact the performance of the network device.